How to determine which services to offer as a designer

11 min readDec 20, 2023

When I started my business, I did what many of us do — I scoured the web for what other designers were offering and made a combination of their services and deliverables.

Back then, I didn’t think much beyond that.

I didn’t consider who my ideal clients were or what they truly wanted.

I didn’t factor in what my business needed to support my life and lifestyle.

But let’s face it, being a designer is more than just crafting stunning visuals or websites. If that were the sole objective, we’d be working for design agencies.

It’s about being able to work from home, having more flexibility in how you spend your time, and having not just more time but also mental space to be present with your loved ones. And for that to happen, you need a financially stable business.

So, if that’s the goal, why create your services in isolation without considering the broader picture of your business, your personal preferences, and your way of life?

Today, let’s look at how you can determine which services to offer that align with you, your income goals, and your audience.

You are more capable than you think.

You know you’re a confident designer, but feeling that same confidence as a business owner can sometimes be a different challenge, right?

Confidence isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room(or social media) or having an unshakeable ego. It’s about having trust in your abilities, your decisions, and what you bring to the table.

So, what does this have to do with determining your services?

Well, quite a bit, actually.

When you aim to create services that align with your vision, your income targets, and your audience, you may need to consider moving beyond offering only one-on-one design services.

Now, I’m not suggesting that every designer should immediately diversify their services or reduce their one-on-one offerings. It all depends on your life’s vision, how your business supports that vision, and the revenue your business needs to generate (I’ll delve into these below).

However, if you’ve taken the steps I’m outlining below and concluded that solely offering one-on-one design services won’t help you work fewer hours, earn more money, or achieve your goals, it’s time to explore other possibilities.

The options are virtually endless. But what I often notice is the addition of services like VIP Days, semi-custom branding, or website templates. These can be excellent additions because they demand less of your time. However, they still revolve around design.

And I understand your passion for design; it’s what you love to do.

But is it possible that you feel that design is the only thing you’re capable of?

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of creating your services, I want you to remember not to underestimate the incredible wealth of knowledge you possess. It goes far beyond crafting eye-catching designs.

With your extensive experience in branding and/or website design, you possess a unique ability to spot elements that can be enhanced when you glance at someone’s website or branding. You can instantly identify when a client lacks clarity about their ideal customer, positioning, or messaging.

When you truly own your capabilities, it opens up a world of opportunities, such as offering website audits, brand audits, and clarity calls. Your confidence can be the key to unlocking these possibilities.

The first steps of creating your services.

The initial steps of developing your services are often the most significant. In this case, the three essential elements that should guide you are ensuring that your offers align with your vision, income objectives, and your target audience.

As you create your services, consider the bigger picture by asking yourself:

What kind of life or lifestyle do you aspire to lead?
How can your business be structured to support your desired life or lifestyle?
What impact will this have on your weekly work hours and client capacity?
What level of revenue must your business generate to make your aspirations a reality? This is your income goal.

These are substantial questions, and I understand that we can’t delve into each of them in great detail in this newsletter.

To assist you further, here are some articles that explore these steps:

Once you’ve established your revenue target, consider it as your north star.

I’ve always believed in purpose-driven actions.

Everything I do in my business serves a broader purpose. It should bring me closer to achieving my business goals and, in turn, enhance my life.

To achieve this, you need a clear understanding of what you’re striving for. Your income goal acts as your compass on this journey.

What services do you like to offer?

Beyond your design style, distinguishing yourself from other designers can be a bit challenging. After all, at its core, you’re all offering the same deliverable. So, how can you convey that you’re not just one in a crowd?

The answer lies in your unique value proposition.

Your journey as a designer, the experiences that have influenced your approach, the specific skills you’ve honed over time, your processes, your values, and your distinct personality — these are your superpowers.

Your clients aren’t merely purchasing a service; they’re investing in something that only you can provide.

There’s no need to be reserved about this.

Feel free to reflect your uniqueness in the services you offer. It could be one-time design projects where your expertise shines, or it might involve ongoing retainer services that provide stability and recurring income. Offering service packages that combine your expertise is also an option.

Creating a diverse offer suite goes beyond just broadening your service range; it’s also about managing your time and resources more efficiently.

By offering a range of services that align with your strengths, you open doors to new clients and various income sources, contributing to financial stability.

It does not matter what this looks like as long as you consider the next point: your audience.

Understanding your target audience

Earlier, I mentioned the common mistake of creating an offer suite without considering your business’s broader context. One aspect often overlooked is understanding your target audience.

While offering services that you genuinely enjoy providing is essential, focusing solely on what you want to offer at your preferred price, without taking into account your audience’s needs and budgets, can make selling your services quite challenging.

Remember, your audience isn’t a faceless group of clients; they are real individuals with specific needs, desires, and financial considerations.

Let’s consider a typical branding package, for instance:

Brand Strategy & Research
Primary Logo Design
Secondary Logo Designs
5 Logo Variations Total
Brand Fonts
Colour Palette
Illustrations & Pattern
25+ Brand Style Guide

Is there anything inherently wrong with this package? Absolutely not.

However, the critical questions to ask are:

What are the primary challenges your ideal client is facing, and what do they view as the perfect solution? (their desires vs. their actual needs)
Where is your ideal client in their business journey, and how does that affect their design requirements?
What budget do they have allocated for brand design?
What kind of support do they require? Do they need guidance, or do they prefer you to execute the design? And does this align with how you like to work?

This package, for instance, is likely priced at a minimum of 2K and would be an excellent fit for businesses with a couple of years of experience, those who have ventured into DIY efforts and are now generating a stable income that permits a 2K investment to elevate their brand.

However, this package might not be suitable for startup business owners. They may not require all these elements, particularly if they are still in the experimental phase, and they probably don’t have 2K to invest.

The better you:

Understand your ideal client
Know where to find them
Recognise their struggles
Comprehend the kind of solution they are seeking
Determine what they can afford for that solution

When you craft packages and messaging that align with their preferences and your offerings, it becomes easier to achieve your income goals and make your business feel more sustainable.

The next step is looking at your capacity.

In other words, how many client projects can you effectively handle simultaneously while ensuring that:

You still have time to work on your business (remember, it’s not just about the hours needed for client work).
The work remains enjoyable for you.
You’re not forced to work every evening and weekend to meet project deadlines.

One of the most enlightening exercises I do with clients involves creating a visual overview, which could be in a tool like ClickUp or a simple spreadsheet.

We break down the number of times they need to sell their services to reach their target revenue. Each service should have its own line, making it clear how much you need to sell.

Realising you need to convert 50 clients can be a true wake-up call. Especially when you see every one of those services in a spreadsheet.

Once we have a total number, each service needs to be categorised by month so that they can see by month how many services they need to sell.

The realisations that come from this exercise usually fall into two categories:

“That’s manageable, I can do it.”
“There’s no way this is possible.”

Many clients find themselves in the second category because, in general, we don’t break down what our revenue target truly means in terms of:

The number of services you need to sell each month.
How many clients you need to serve simultaneously.

This exercise often reveals that there are too many services to sell each month, given the existing audience, marketing efforts, and current monthly inquiries. It may also show that there are too many projects to run simultaneously.

Think of this as a way to test the achievability of your revenue target and how well your current services will or won’t help you reach it.

This exercise will guide you on whether you need to streamline your operations, adjust your pricing, work on your positioning to command higher prices, or even consider whether your revenue budget is presently unrealistic. It offers clear guidance on your next steps.

Do you start to see how all of this is connected?

There is a bit more to this exercise and more considerations, but I hope this simplified explanation gives you a good idea of the exercise. This process is covered in more detail in step 3 of How to create a revenue budget based on your ‘enough’ which includes calculations.

Putting it all together

I know that was a lot to absorb, so let me illustrate it with an example.

Before I dive into that, let’s get one thing straight:

You don’t need courses
You don’t need a group program
You don’t need brand or website templates
You don’t need to mentor other designers
You don’t need to offer brand strategy
You don’t need to follow the example I’m about to share.
You don’t need 5 services

Your path is your own, shaped by what suits your financial goals and your personal vision for your business and lifestyle. It’s not about keeping up with what others are doing; it’s about creating something that’s authentically YOU.

The example I’m presenting is particularly beneficial for designers who want to guide their clients on a journey to success. Each service is strategically designed to assist your clients in moving to the next stage of their business journey.

As your clients gain knowledge, face new challenges, and grow their budgets, they can naturally progress from one service to the next. This reduces the constant need for lead generation and increases the lifetime value of each client.

In this example, it’s essential to ensure that your various services don’t overlap or compete with each other. This is a common issue when offers in a suite lack clear distinctions.

At the top of the service hierarchy are your custom design projects. These projects demand your full attention and consume a significant amount of your time, justifying their place as the most expensive service in your lineup.

However, not all clients may be ready for a custom design project or may not have the budget for it. In such cases, you can consider high-tier alternatives:

VIP Day: Transform smaller offers, like brand collateral and landing pages, into half and full-day VIP days. This not only shortens project timelines (which can normally span weeks) but also streamlines multiple smaller offerings into one service.
A “done-with-you” option in the form of a group program. You can make this a small group program accessible to the public or exclusively invite past clients who have previously bought one of your lower-tier services. You could run it once or twice a year, providing a cash injection into your business.

For clients who are not ready for new branding or a new website, you could offer mid-tier services like:

A brand or website audit. You’d conduct the review yourself, create a nice looking ‘report’, and then discuss it with the client. This approach ensures that only a small part of your time is spent directly with the client, and you have the flexibility to spread the review process over several days.
Alternatively, you can offer a design service carried out by a junior designer. While you’d still have the final say on everything, the junior designer handles the bulk of the work. Given that it consumes less of your time, this can be offered at a more affordable price point.

Now, let’s focus on the entry-level and basic tiers. Ideally, your direct involvement in these services should be minimal or even non-existent. You could consider:

A brand basics course or recourse shop as an entry-level service. It’s designed to help your clients begin their journey, providing them with essential knowledge and insights. This course or the templates aims to prepare them better for custom projects or participation in the group program. Many clients often view new designs as a solution to their business challenges, but the root cause may lie in the absence of a clear business or brand strategy. Educating them with a lower-cost offering can result in better service delivery with your higher-tier services.
The basic tier would be a suitable step after clients have gained a fundamental understanding of brand basics but before they are ready for a review. I’ve chosen a clarity call for this stage, which can serve as a bridge to the higher-tier services.

This offer suite is structured around an ascension model. To learn more about this type of model, an explanation of all the tiers, and my suggestions on how to implement a model like this, you can read this article.

Before I wrap up this article, I want to add one warning. If you find that your current services aren’t selling as expected, the urge to add new services may be tempting.

However, it’s vital to understand that introducing more services won’t necessarily address the underlying issues if you don’t know how to engage your audience.

Instead, the key is to focus on positioning your existing offerings effectively, gaining a deeper understanding of your ideal client, and crafting messaging that draws them in. That’s where the real transformation happens.

You’ve got this,
Stephanie

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